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LE

Edward refused to follow instructions if he thought they were pointless.
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At the start of 11th grade, Edward announced that high school had nothing more to teach him, and he dropped out.
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He was involved in an altercation with some local boys the next year, and he was charged with resisting arrest
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His next run-in was more serious... Edward was arrested with crack cocaine and marijuana ... he punched an officer in the chest and tried to run... he still faced felony drug charges. The military was his answer.
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A recruiter who worked in the Gonzales office at the time said Edward scored high on his tests and said he wanted to serve his country. "He had some problems, but it wasn't anything that we couldn't put him in the Army for,"
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From basic training, Edward shipped to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii... He broke his jaw in a bar fight.
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The raid started at daybreak... A call came over the radio to detain all males leaving the village... Sgt. Jeffrey Waruch relayed their orders: Shoot any males fleeing the village, but check with him if possible before firing.
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Edward saw a cow herder in a field about 200 yards away.
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The man stopped resisting as Waruch cuffed him, and the sergeant turned to lead him back to the road. As they walked on the uneven field, the man lost his balance and stumbled into Waruch.

...the Army charged Edward with unpremeditated murder and scheduled his general court-martial in Tikrit in August. He faced life in prison.
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The key witness against Edward was Waruch... Two of Edward's fellow soldiers testified that he often talked about wanting to kill an Iraqi. But under cross-examination, they said most soldiers did.
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The jury gave him three years, a demotion in rank and a dishonorable discharge.

Sadness Turns To Anger

Eddie received something in the mail that would shift him to outrage. Inside an envelope with no return address were confidential Army documents. One page was stamped "Serious Incident Report."
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Eddie sat in his kitchen and began to read. Waruch had shot three female civilians, one of whom died.
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Waruch had fired on a mother and her two daughters, killing a 14-year-old.
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Waruch was initially cleared of any wrongdoing, but a second review found that he had violated the rules of engagement. The girl had been trying to surrender when she was shot. No weapons were found.
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In May 2005, more than a year after the incident, the CID opened an investigation into the shooting of the three female civilians. Waruch left the Army early this year. The investigation remains open. Attempts to reach Waruch for comment for this story were unsuccessful.
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When he was released in June, he had served nearly two years of a three-year sentence.
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The family of Muhamad Husain Kadir was paid $1,000 for his death.

The Army paid more than $4,000 to the family of the girl killed by Waruch, among them her wounded sister and mother, whose leg was amputated. The 1st Battalion commander wrote a sympathy letter to the family.
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The former 1st Infantry Division commander in Iraq, Batiste, is now the president of a steel company.

Edward is earning $10 an hour at the foundry.
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As summer turns to fall, he [the father] wears his Defend the Defenders T-shirt, waiting for word on his son's appeal.

Unlawfull killing of Hawiaian cow herder would cause a compensation much bigger than $1000. Cost of human life in Iraq is low. Taking into account spendings on Iraqi war, cost of the trial, a size of the compensation looks as a humiliation.

@TheIronDuke: Russian or any other trolls tend to be dealt with using weapons Russia can never hope to deploy.
Humour Irony Intelligence Knowlege

Old-Salt

Tell you what Sergey: find a case from Chechnya where the Russian army has even acknowledged that its young men sometimes overstep the mark under pressure: then I'll consider accepting your worries about the behaviour of US soldiers. Your nation has sanctioned the sort of behaviour that makes My Lai look like a peacenik's love in, so please don't try to tell us how horrible Western soldiers are...

Clanker

I think the typical soldier is only valid about the getting into a barfight part.

But for the guy who is disgusted about how the western media supposedly makes iraqi life cheapened why don't you direct your anger towards the iraqis driving a truck full of explosives into crowds of iraqi civilians who value their lives as worthless instead of pointing the finger at americans.

No, 2 wrongs don't make a right, but there's another old line about 'those who live in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones'...

Russia may not preach, but, in effect, that's exactly what Sergey's doing here. I don't wish to 'have it both ways' (whatever that vaguely porn-filmish comment means), but I'm damned if I'm having a member of one of the most repressive and ill-controlled state/armed forces of the last century try to claim moral equivalence with the US forces. Sod off, read your Gulag archipelago, and the reports out of Chechnya/Afghanistan.

The US have, on occasion, commited atrocities - as have we. They pale into insignificance compared to the state directed use of atrocities as an instrument of policy that the USSR/new russia under Putin employs. If you don't understand or believe that, feel free t ogo and live in the racist/alcohol/burgeoning aids capital of the world.

Old-Salt

You need a sub fusc russian to stand up for you? thanks for the 'tw@t off' - it illustrates exactly why I'm not going to bother with your childish remarks any more. If you honestly feel that there is moral equivalence between the US army, and an army that consistently murders its own recruits and massacres civilians as a matter of course, then debate is purposeless...

LE

You need a sub fusc russian to stand up for you? thanks for the 'tw@t off' - it illustrates exactly why I'm not going to bother with your childish remarks any more. If you honestly feel that there is moral equivalence between the US army, and an army that consistently murders its own recruits and massacres civilians as a matter of course, then debate is purposeless...

Old-Salt

Of course: that's one of the most refreshingly honest posts I've read in here for some time: my apologies if I came across as boorish: i didn't particularly think your posts were 'wrong', just not what I believe in...

No, 2 wrongs don't make a right, but there's another old line about 'those who live in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones'...

Russia may not preach, but, in effect, that's exactly what Sergey's doing here. I don't wish to 'have it both ways' (whatever that vaguely porn-filmish comment means), but I'm damned if I'm having a member of one of the most repressive and ill-controlled state/armed forces of the last century try to claim moral equivalence with the US forces. Sod off, read your Gulag archipelago, and the reports out of Chechnya/Afghanistan.

The US have, on occasion, commited atrocities - as have we. They pale into insignificance compared to the state directed use of atrocities as an instrument of policy that the USSR/new russia under Putin employs. If you don't understand or believe that, feel free t ogo and live in the racist/alcohol/burgeoning aids capital of the world.

No you haven't: must be the effect of all that Catholic brainwashing - sorry, I mean upbringing - in your country....

My point is that US - and UK - atrocities do indeed occur. However, on 2 counts, they should not be regarded as evidence of moral equivalence with the armed forces of the USSR, or the new Russian federation.

The first is 'chain of command complicity'. By and large, where 'white,western, NATO forces' have committed war crimes, it has been the action of individuals who have lost the plot. It is not part of a deliberate policy of terror, designed to crush all opposition at whatever moral or physical cost.

The second is the subsequent reaction: the UK and the US attempt, most of the time, to be honest and open about such events: we may not always get it right, but we tend, when such events are 'discovered', to try and investigate in as impartial a way as possible.

As I say, if you don't believe that, tell me - honestly - whether you'd rather be occupied by the Russian army, or us/the US. The Chechens/Georgians/Afghans/Hungarians/Poles/Latvians/Lithuanians/Estonians/etc etc etc can help with some useful advice and comments here....

Iâll place this in the category in which it belongs: âRemarks for people with shaky self-esteemâ. Youâre either astonishingly naÃ¯ve, have completely lost contact with the real world, or this really is a wind-up and Iâve bitten big-time.

Nibbler said:

My point is that US - and UK - atrocities do indeed occur. However, on 2 counts, they should not be regarded as evidence of moral equivalence with the armed forces of the USSR, or the new Russian federation.

The first is 'chain of command complicity'. By and large, where 'white, western, NATO forces' have committed war crimes, it has been the action of individuals who have lost the plot. It is not part of a deliberate policy of terror, designed to crush all opposition at whatever moral or physical cost.

The second is the subsequent reaction: the UK and the US attempt, most of the time, to be honest and open about such events: we may not always get it right, but we tend, when such events are 'discovered', to try and investigate in as impartial a way as possible.

Iâm glad you put the word âdiscovered in inverted commas. There have been so many cases of complicity going right up the chain of command to the very top. Bush, Cheney and Ronald Dumbsfeld and the torture of prisoners comes to mind. And you mention impartial investigations. Does that mean that Colin Powell and his slimy buddies didnât do their best to cover up the My Lai incident? And what sentence did Calley actually serve? Two days house arrest! Now thereâs justice for you!

Nibbler said:

As I say, if you don't believe that, tell me - honestly - whether you'd rather be occupied by the Russian army, or us/the US. The Chechens/Georgians/Afghans/Hungarians/Poles/Latvians/Lithuanians/Estonians/etc etc etc can help with some useful advice and comments here....